Although South Africa’s informal sector is small compared to other developing countries, it nevertheless provides livelihoods, employment and income for millions of workers and business owners. Almost half of informal-sector workers work in firms with employees. The annual entry of new enterprises is quite high, as is the number of informal enterprises that grow their employment. There is no shortage of entrepreneurship and desire to grow.

However, obstacles and constraints cause hardship and failure, pointing to the need for well-designed policies to enable and support the sector, rather than suppress it. The same goes for formalisation. Recognising the informal sector as an integral part of the economy, rather than ignoring it, is a crucial first step towards instituting a ‘smart’ policy approach.

The South African Informal Sector is strongly evidence- and data-driven, with substantial quantitative contributions combined with qualitative findings – suitable for an era of increased pressure for evidence-based policy-making – and utilises several disciplinary perspectives.

This South African edition of Microeconomics is essential reading for all students taking introductory economics modules on undergraduate courses throughout South Africa. It is also ideal for use with the microeconomics component of MBA courses. The text contains updated case studies, set against a South African context to illustrate how the principles of economics relate to your life. The news articles are based on news events in South Africa along with questions to help you apply your knowledge and to build your understanding. This text is designed to give you the confidence and ability to think like an economist.

Ever wonder why you have the number of friends that you do? . . . If a tax on soda would really reduce obesity? . . . What is going on with the financial problems in Greece? . . . or whether a tax rebate is better than a tax bonus? MICROECONOMICS, 11e, International Edition answers these questions and many more. Using intriguing pop culture examples, the eleventh edition is revised to include the most comprehensive coverage of the financial and economic crisis available in a principles of microeconomics text. Self-tests help determine how well you're grasping the concepts, and CourseMate for Microeconomics offers a graphing tutorial, quizzes, videos and more. It's all carefully designed to help you get the best grade possible! Building on the Video Office Hours lectures developed by the author for the tenth edition, the eleventh edition features two entirely new video types--See It Solved and GraphIt! See It Solved videos walk you through a worked problem, similar to those found at the end of each chapter, providing an ideal study tool for reference as you do homework. GraphIt! videos demonstrate key concepts in graphing in short (averaging three to five minutes) video pieces that can be played and replayed to see how the graphs are built.

A masterful introduction to the key ideas behind the successes "and failures "of free-market economics Since 1946, Henry Hazlitt (TM)s bestselling Economics in One Lesson has popularized the belief that economics can be boiled down to one simple lesson: market prices represent the true cost of everything. But one-lesson economics tells only half the story. It can explain why markets often work so well, but it can (TM)t explain why they often fail so badly "or what we should do when they stumble. As Nobel Prize "winning economist Paul Samuelson quipped, oeWhen someone preaches ~Economics in one lesson, (TM) I advise: Go back for the second lesson. In Economics in Two Lessons, John Quiggin teaches both lessons, offering a masterful introduction to the key ideas behind the successes "and failures "of free markets. Economics in Two Lessons explains why market prices often fail to reflect the full cost of our choices to society as a whole. For example, every time we drive a car, fly in a plane, or flick a light switch, we contribute to global warming. But, in the absence of a price on carbon emissions, the costs of our actions are borne by everyone else. In such cases, government action is needed to achieve better outcomes. Two-lesson economics means giving up the dogmatism of laissez-faire as well as the reflexive assumption that any economic problem can be solved by government action, since the right answer often involves a mixture of market forces and government policy. But the payoff is huge: understanding how markets actually work "and what to do when they don (TM)t. Brilliantly accessible, Economics in Two Lessons unlocks the essential issues at the heart of any economic question.

Have you ever wondered how prices are determined, or why you bought a specific quantity of something? The answers to these and other questions, as well as the theories guiding decisions by consumers and producers, are explained in Microeconomics— a southern African perspective.

This book provides a comprehensive introduction to microeconomics theory, offering traditional theories of consumer and producer behaviour set against a contemporary southern African background.

This second edition of Microeconomics – a southern African perspective provides a comprehensive and current introduction to microeconomic theory for the southern African context, while retaining the original ethos from the first edition. It addresses traditional theories of consumer and producer behaviour as prescribed in most introductory microeconomic modules and answers questions around how consumers and producers interact in the market, looking specifically at the choices made by producers in their endeavour to produce optimally.

Suitable for introductory semester-based courses in microeconomics, it facilitates learning through activities and self-evaluation exercises at the end of each chapter, with feedback to activities and answers to the exercises at the end of the book. The study of economics provides the tools for analysis and a framework for thinking that can aid you in making more informed decisions when faced with economic problems, making it suitable for economics students or those requiring an understanding of the economy within a specific financial field.

This lively book takes Oklahoma history into the world of Wild West capitalism. It begins with a useful survey of banking from the early days of the American republic until commercial patterns coalesced in the East. It then follows the course of American expansion westward, tracing the evolution of commerce and banking in Oklahoma from their genesis to the eve of statehood in 1907.
"Banking in Oklahoma before Statehood "is not just a story of men sitting behind desks. Author Michael J. Hightower describes the riverboat trade in the Arkansas and Red River valleys and freighting on the Santa Fe Trail. Shortages of both currency and credit posed major impediments to regional commerce until storekeepers solved these problems by moving beyond barter to open ad hoc establishments known as merchant banks.
Banking went through a wild adolescence during the territorial period. The era saw robberies and insider shenanigans, rivalries between banks with territorial and national charters, speculation in land and natural resources, and land fraud in the Indian Territory. But as banking matured, the better-capitalized institutions became the nucleus of commercial culture in the Oklahoma and Indian Territories.
To tell this story, the author blends documentary historical research in both public and corporate archives with his own interviews and those that WPA field-workers conducted with old-timers during the New Deal. Bankers were never far from the action during the territorial period, and the institutions they built were both cause and effect of Oklahoma's inclusion in national networks of banking and commerce. The no-holds-barred brand of capitalism that breathed life into the Oklahoma frontier has remained alive and well since the days of the fur traders. As one knowledgable observer said in the 1980s, "You've always had the gambling spirit in Oklahoma."

Co-written by Joseph Stiglitz, winner of the Nobel Prize for his research on imperfect markets, and Carl E. Walsh, one of the leading monetary economists in the field, Principles of Microeconomics is the most modern and accurate text available.

Conflict economics contributes to an understanding of violent conflict and peace in two important ways. First, it applies economic concepts and models to help one understand diverse conflict activities such as war, terrorism, genocide, and peace. Second, it treats coercive appropriation as a fundamental economic activity, joining production and exchange as a means of wealth acquisition. In the second edition of their book Principles of Conflict Economics, Anderton and Carter provide comprehensive, up-to-date coverage of the key themes and principles of conflict economics. Along with new scholarship on well-established areas such as war, terrorism and alliances and under-researched areas including genocides, individual and family aspects of war, and conflict prevention, they apply new economic tools to the study of war and peace such as behavioral economics and economics of identity and offer deeper research and policy insights into how to reconstitute societies after large-scale violence.

This text rigorously blends theory with real-world applications to study the industrial organisation of the ICT sector. Each of the self-contained chapters, which can be studied in isolation, contains theoretical models that are presented in a clear and accessible way. Throughout, a series of useful boxes complements and elucidates the theories with additional empirical/anecdotal evidence. This text will be of great interest to advanced undergraduate students with a background in microeconomics and game theory, particularly those taking courses in industrial organisation, innovation economics and the economics of networks. The authors address the most important issues and are able to explore and explain complex theories and concepts in a clear, logical and coherent manner. Some of the topics covered include: * the economics of innovation * digital markets * network externalities * two-sided networks * imitation, open source and file sharing * antitrust in high-tech sectors.

Most macroeconomists agree that we live in the age of microfoundations. The recent worldwide financial crisis may have emboldened critics of this microfoundational orthodoxy, but it remains the dominant view that macroeconomic models must go beyond supply and demand functions to the level of individual decision-making, taking into account the general dynamic environment where agents live. Microfoundations Reconsidered seeks to reassess how the relationship of micro and macroeconomics evolved over time. The highly regarded contributors to the book argue that the standard narrative of microfoundations is likely to be unreliable. They therefore re-examine the history of the relationship of microeconomics and macroeconomics, starting from their emergence as self-consciously distinct fields within economics in the early 1930s. They seek to go beyond the conventional history that is often told and written by practicing economists. From different perspectives they challenge the association of microfoundations with Robert Lucas and rational expectations and offer both a more complete and a deeper reading of the relationship between micro and macroeconomics. Microfoundations Reconsidered is a valuable addition to the macroeconomic research literature. It is ideally suited to students, scholars, researchers, and practitioners with an interest in macro and microeconomics and the history of economics.

Microeconomics, 5th Edition gives students the most effective approach for learning microeconomic tools and concepts. This text provides an accessible, integrated structure with numerous practice problems, exercises, and engaging applications. Worked-out Learning-by-Doing problems, mathematical and graphical data, and verbal explanations enable business and economics majors to recognize significant data, patterns, and trends.

Shadows of Doubt reveals how deeply stereotypes distort our interactions, shape crime, and deform the criminal justice system. If you're a robber, how do you choose your victims? As a police officer, how afraid are you of the young man you're about to arrest? As a judge, do you think the suspect in front of you will show up in court if released from pretrial detention? As a juror, does the defendant seem guilty to you? Your answers may depend on the stereotypes you hold, and the stereotypes you believe others hold. In this provocative, pioneering book, economists Brendan O'Flaherty and Rajiv Sethi explore how stereotypes can shape the ways crimes unfold and how they contaminate the justice system through far more insidious, pervasive, and surprising paths than we have previously imagined. Crime and punishment occur under extreme uncertainty. Offenders, victims, police officers, judges, and jurors make high-stakes decisions with limited information, under severe time pressure. With compelling stories and extensive data on how people act as they try to commit, prevent, or punish crimes, O'Flaherty and Sethi reveal the extent to which we rely on stereotypes as shortcuts in our decision making. Sometimes it's simple: Robbers tend to target those they stereotype as being more compliant. Other interactions display a complex and sometimes tragic interplay of assumptions: "If he thinks I'm dangerous, he might shoot. I'll shoot first." Shadows of Doubt shows how deeply stereotypes are implicated in the most controversial criminal justice issues of our time, and how a clearer understanding of their effects can guide us toward a more just society.

This book presents a comprehensive account of more than 200 years of controversy on the classical theories of value and distribution. The author focuses on four, perhaps most critical, classics, viz., Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations, David Ricardo's Principles of Political Economy, Karl Marx's Capital and Piero Sraffa's Production of Commodities by Means of Commodities. The book highlights several significant differences in the theories of the four authors as it searches for the ?classical standpoint? that separates them from the ?moderns?. It throws fresh light on some old questions while introducing new, controversial interpretations in the literature surrounding it. It is unique in its organisation as it first presents the author's close reading of the theories of value and distribution in the four classics and then critically engages with the major alternative interpretations and criticisms of the theories discussed therein.

Bringing original insights on theoretical positions, the book challenges canonical interpretations so as to discuss and analyse the flaws and weaknesses, in addition to the already obvious strengths, of widely celebrated theories. The theories discussed here emerge from questions like: what role does demand or human psychology play in the determination of value in classical theory? Do classical economists determine the distribution of income within the context of a theory of prices and resource allocation? What role does the notion of ?equilibrium? play in classical theory and the theory of Sraffa?

It will appeal to academics and students of economic theory and philosophy, as well as to the general reader.

Following the successful PCS Auction conducted by the US Federal Communications Commission in 1994, auctions have replaced traditional ways of allocating valuable radio spectrum, a key resource for any mobile telecommunications operator. Spectrum auctions have raised billions of dollars worldwide and have become a role model for market-based approaches in the public and private sectors. The design of spectrum auctions is a central application of game theory and auction theory due to its importance in industry and the theoretical challenges it presents. Several auction formats have been developed with different properties addressing fundamental questions about efficiently selling multiple objects to a group of buyers. This comprehensive handbook features classic papers and new contributions by international experts on all aspects of spectrum auction design, including pros and cons of different auctions and lessons learned from theory, experiments, and the field, providing a valuable resource for regulators, telecommunications professionals, consultants, and researchers.

Transport Economics is a thoroughly revised edition of a well-established textbook which applies economic analysis to transport issues. Each chapter has been carefully reworked and includes new material dealing with the regulation of transport markets. The theoretical content is supported with considerable empirical evidence drawn from a wide range of international sources. Although aimed primarily at university students, this volume is accessible to non-specialists who have an interest in transport economics. It has no modal bias but rather examines in general terms the many aspects of the demand for, and supply of, transport together with the various methods of government intervention needed to ensure that social and environmental criteria are attained. This successful and widely adopted textbook has been meticulously revised and updated for the third edition. As the best intermediate text currently available, it will be welcomed by students, policymakers and all those concerned with the supply of transport services.

The economic concepts presented in Managerial Economics show students how to use quantitative methods and economic analysis alongside common sense to better understand business and address managerial problems. The text's unique integrative approach demonstrates that important business decisions are interdisciplinary and must involve collaboration between multiple business functions. Including updated real company cases and examples, the 15th edition of this text demonstrates how economic concepts and tools can be applied to real organisations and management situations.

We live in a culture of credit. As wages have stagnated, we've seen a dramatic surge in private borrowing across the western world; increasing numbers of households are sucked into a hopeless vortex of spiralling debt, fuelled by exploitative lending. In this book Johnna Montgomerie argues that the situation is chronically dysfunctional, both individually and collectively. She shows that abolishing household debts can put an end to austerity and to the unsustainable forward march of debt-dependent growth. She combines astute economic analysis with the elements of an accessible guide to practical policy solutions such as extending unconventional monetary policy to the household sector, providing pragmatic and affordable refinancing options, and writing off the most pernicious elements of household debt. This framework, she contends, can help us to make our economy fairer and to tackle both the housing crisis and accelerating inequality.

This is one of the first texts on the market to provide a foundation for covering the important subject of electronic commerce within college and university economics curricula. Applying basic principles of economics, the book surveys the various ways that economics can be applied to the area of electronic commerce and how the e-commerce revolution affects the economy. It features full coverage of the implications of electronic commerce within the various areas of the discipline; balanced examinations of how basic economic principles continue to apply to the electronic marketplace and of how features of certain products sold in this marketplace have required rethinking some of those principles; and numerous current-interest features underscoring the real-world relevance of the study of e-commerce economics.

This invaluable book provides the foundations for a new theory of the firm, drawing on Birger Wernerfelt's landmark work on economic theory and the resource-based view of the firm. It addresses a vigorous and long-standing academic debate over what exactly a 'firm' is, both in the field of management and economics. Wernerfelt revisits his classic articles, including an extensively revised 'A Resource-Based View of the Firm' (1984), which have been updated and synthesized to provide precise and accessible concepts and predictions. By offering future directions for research and practice, this book will be of interest to students and scholars of management and economics alike.

The first textbook to present a comprehensive and detailed economic analysis of electricity markets, analyzing the tensions between microeconomics and political economy. The power industry is essential in our fight against climate change. This book is the first to examine in detail the microeconomics underlying power markets, stemming from peak-load pricing, by which prices are low when the installed generation capacity exceeds demand but can rise a hundred times higher when demand is equal to installed capacity. The outcome of peak-load pricing is often difficult to accept politically, and the book explores the tensions between microeconomics and political economy. Understanding peak-load pricing and its implications is essential for designing robust policies and making sound investment decisions. Thomas-Olivier Leautier presents the model in its simplest form, and introduces additional features as different issues are presented. The book covers all segments of electricity markets: electricity generation, under perfect and imperfect competition; retail competition and demand response; transmission pricing, transmission congestion management, and transmission constraints; and the current policy issues arising from the entry of renewables into the market and capacity mechanisms. Combining anecdotes and analysis of real situations with rigorous analytical modeling, each chapter analyzes one specific issue, first presenting findings in nontechnical terms accessible to policy practitioners and graduate students in management or public policy and then presenting a more mathematical analytical exposition for students and researchers specializing in the economics of electricity markets and for those who want to understand and apply the underlying models.

This second edition retains the positive features of being clearly written, well organized, and incorporating calculus in the text, while adding expanded coverage on game theory, experimental economics, and behavioural economics. It remains more focused and manageable than similar textbooks, and provides a concise yet comprehensive treatment of the core topics of microeconomics, including theories of the consumer and of the firm, market structure, partial and general equilibrium, and market failures caused by public goods, externalities and asymmetric information. The book includes helpful solved problems in all the substantive chapters, as well as over seventy new mathematical exercises and enhanced versions of the ones in the first edition. The authors make use of the book's full color with sharp and helpful graphs and illustrations. This mathematically rigorous textbook is meant for students at the intermediate level who have already had an introductory course in microeconomics, and a calculus course.

Your one-stop guide to understanding Microeconomics Microeconomics For Dummies (with content specific to the UK reader) is designed to help you understand the economics of individuals. Using concise explanations and accessible content that tracks directly to an undergraduate course, this book provides a student-focused course supplement with an in-depth examination of each topic. This invaluable companion provides clear information and real-world examples that bring microeconomics to life and introduces you to all the key concepts. From supply and demand to market competition, you'll understand how the economy works on an individual level, and how it affects you every day. Before long, you'll be conversant in consumers, costs, and competition. Microeconomics is all about the behaviour of individual people and individual firms. It sounds pretty straightforward, but it gets complicated early on. You may not be an economist, but if you're a business student at university, the odds are you need to come to grips with microeconomics. That's where Microeconomics For Dummies comes in, walking you through the fundamental concepts and giving you the understanding you need to master the material. Understand supply, demand, and equilibrium Examine the consumer decision making process Delve into elasticity and costs of production Learn why competition is healthy and monopolies are not Even the brightest business students can find economics intimidating, but the material is essential to a solid grasp of how the business world works. The good news is that you've come to the right place.

Ever wonder why you have the number of friends that you do? Would a tax on soda really reduce obesity? What is going on with the financial problems in Greece? Is a tax rebate is better than a tax bonus? MACROECONOMICS, 12E answers these questions and many more as this book opens up the world of economic analysis. This edition offers more detailed coverage of the financial and economic crisis than any other macroeconomics book of its kind on the market. Memorable examples from pop culture illustrate the unexpected places macroeconomics occur and show how economic forces link to every day events. This edition offers complete video assets ideal for self-study. "Video Office Hours" digital lectures walk you through worked problems, while brief "Working with Diagrams" videos demonstrate key concepts in graphing that you can play and replay. A new Adaptive Test Prep Tool available on MindTap (TM) enables you to assess your personal economic understanding. Powerful digital resources, including Aplia (TM), MindTap (TM) work with the book's latest content to reflect today's changing economy and equip you with a thorough understanding of contemporary macroeconomics.